Schneller Joins Outrage over Ronsky Raid, Police Lies

MK Otniel Schneller joins in the outrage over a police raid in Itamar and says police “are not telling the truth – and not for the first time.”

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Maayana Miskin, 01/04/11 10:04 | updated: 10:24

MK Schneller

Israel news photo: file

MK Otniel Schneller (Kadima) slammed a police raid in Itamar in an interview with Arutz Sheva. “It was unwise, and I am using nice words here, so as not to say 'stupid,'” he said of the raid.

In the raid in question, police went to Itamar to question Moshe Ronsky, the son of former IDF Chief Rabbi Avichai Ronsky. He was questioned for owning a Glock pistol, due to an incident several months ago in which a Palestinian Authority Arab man was shot by a Jewish man in self-defense, using a Glock pistol.

The police were right in going to Itamar to question Ronsky, Schneller said. What was wrong was their method of doing so.

“If the police suspect that someone fired a certain type of weapon, they have to investigate the people who own that kind of weapon. But after so many months, to go to Itamar right after the massacre there, and before dawn, to arrest an honest man, a soldier in an elite unit, a law-abiding citizen, and treat him like a criminal? That is the action of an unwise captain,” he stated.

The police knocked on Moshe Ronsky's door at 5:30 AM, leading the family to fear that terrorists were attempting to break into the house.

Schneller was also angered by police officers' dishonesty. “I looked into the event, and the police captains are not telling the truth. This is not the first time that the police in Judea and Samaria are not telling the truth,” he said.

Police said that officers had merely knocked on the Ronsky family's door and asked to speak to Moshe Ronsky, Schneller explained. “That is totally untrue. They threatened to break the door down, they said they had come to arrest him,” he said.

Moshe Ronsky is not suspected of any crime, Schneller noted, as the unknown Glock owner who fired on an Arab is not suspected of murder, but of killing in self-defense, which is legal.

Schneller said he plans to raise the issue on Sunday at a meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. He has asked that the sub-committee tasked with investigating a previous police raid, at Gilad Farm, investigate this recent incident as well.

“The Minister of Internal Security must rein in the police, and avoid causing unnecessary tension between the Israel Police and Israelis in Judea and Samaria,” Schneller concluded. “I am embarrassed by this [police] behavior.”